General Question

How long does weed stay in your system?

So I know this has probably been asked a million times before, and I also know that it varies between people and methods of testing but I need reassurance. I have a job interview in a week and they’re going to give me a drug test (most likely a pee test). I smoked about a week ago, it wasn’t very much and it was the first time in like five years. I just want to know if there’s a possibility that I could fail it? I’m 18 and the legal smoking age is 21.

15 Answers

Are you referring to the highly potent chemical within marijuana called THC? If so you can sweat it out in a day if you are insane enough to try it. My pal joined the military and the day before his test he smoked a hell of a lot of reefer marijuana. So he smoked one day, the next day he dedicated to running 6 miles and sweating it out by wearing a black plastic bag.

This is actually pretty accurate. It depends greatly on your metabolism though since THC binds to fat cells. My advice would just be drink a fuck ton of water and exercise. I mean you should do both of these anyway but yea….

Drink a lot of liquids. Piss tests aren’t that hard to pass. Hell my dad, who smokes everyday and has for like 40 years, was on probation for a year and a half, was piss tested regularly, and passed every test with no problems.

It takes about 30 days for a chronic smoker to have a guaranteed clean piss test. Smoking once or twice won’t effect a hair test. Smoking a few days before a hair test also won’t have an effect. They don’t cut that close to your scalp.

It depends on how much you smoked, how much fatty foods you ate at the time you were high and shortly after, how big you are, what kinds of things you drink – but 14 days for a person of average-ish size and with an average metabolism is the generally accepted number.

A week might be ok, especially since you only smoked a bit, but if you want to be safe I recommend a system flush. Get fruit pectin (Sure-Gel) and juice (Arizona Green Tea). They are easily obtained at your grocery store. Mix them, drink it an hour and a half to two hours before the test, and make sure to pee once before the test so the reading will be for urine molecules that are coated with the pectin and not for the stuff that was sitting in your bladder before you drank the mixture. I know several people who have used this method to beat government piss tests, having smoked the day before and every day leading up to the test.

Additionally, or instead, for peace of mind you can check yourself by buying an at-home drug test kit from a pharmacy. They are generally more sensitive than the job tests, so if you pass an at-home test you’ll know that you’ll almost certainly be ok.

@GloPro Probably should have read his comment first , but still, it that anecdote the person was burning it off, even if they were sweating like a mother fucker :P

@Buttonstc I know some idiots who tried that for various jobs, the employers just took hair from another part of their body. I knew one kid who decided “fuck it, I’ll just shave all my hair” . Ya, he looked like a chemo patient that still didn’t get the job because it was pretty obvious what he was doing.

What choice do you have now? You have to take the test right? Hope for the best.

Stop smoking weed. Especially, if you are looking for a new job. If you smoked just a little bit and haven’t smoked in a long time your test will probably be ok.

If it comes back positive you could ask for a repeat maybe. If they tell you why you aren’t being hired. By the time of the retest you should be clear if you didn’t smoke again and are not hanging around people who get hi.

This is coming from someone who used to smoke quality weed very heavy at one time, and has taken at least 50 urine tests, and a few saliva tests. However, my personal experiences should not be taken as a definite answer.

I have never failed a drug test in my entire life, and outside of drinking a gallon of an herbal tea the night before a drug test because it caught me off guard since I’d only smoked three days prior to it. I’ve smoked weed as much as three times a day for an entire month, and have passed urine tests without taking any special supplements or precautions outside of no giving myself a week to refrain from smoking, drinking water and exercising.

Unfortunately I know a little too much about this topic, but my advice will likely save your butt so listen to it. Urine and hair tests don’t detect the actual amount of THC in your body, but instead test for chemical changes via THC metabolites that have nothing to do with impairment. Blood tests on the other hand test for the actual amount of THC in your blood, so are more suited for determining impairment over general usage. Water doesn’t speed up removing THC metabolites from your system, but it helps your body to flush these out better, and it helps your detoxifying process work better since the body’s vital functions work much better when properly hydrated. Exercise burns more fat, and speeds up your metabolism, so more THC metabolites from the fat will enter your bloodstream, and reach your urine, though more metabolites will exit your body during a bowel movement.

Personally, based on what I know about this, my own experiences and advice given to me, and the experiences of others I’ve known, I’d say you’re 99% home free if you follow my advice. You had only smoked one time, so your situation is even better than others I’ve known, and myself in the past. Just do some basic exercise like walking, running or some type of physical activity in order to speed your metabolism up. You don’t have to run 5 miles or wear a rubber suit here, just do basic active things for at least an hour or two a day, and drink at least ½ gallon water each day, you don’t have to saturate yourself with massive amounts here. For the next five days you simple want to help your body do what it naturally does to function properly. You’ll want to slow down your physical activity about 2 days before the urine test but still drink water.

I’d purchase a cheap home drug testing strip from a drug or convenience store after about five days, and test your first urine of the day, preferably after you wake up since this is the time when the most concentrated amount of THC metabolites would show up. You know you’re home-free when you see the line show up on your test strip. I’d also recommend drinking plenty about a 20 ounce bottle of water, and urinate at least once before actually taking the test. You simply do not want to use your first urination of the day as your specimen as a simple precaution, but I don’t think even this will matter in your particular case. Don’t drink too much water though, or they’ll give you a positive test result anyways.

Personally I don’t even think you need to follow any of my advise above, except for the refraining from usage part, but those extra precautions don’t hurt. There are no guarantees when it comes to any type of drug testing, and increased weight, overall size, body characteristics and metabolism rates can make passing drug tests more difficult for some, while easy for others. This is why you should test yourself at least twice before taking your actual urine test.